Outside the Lines

Chapter One

“One. Two. Three. Four. Five.” Our instructor calls off our names, one by one, taking roll call.

“Nine.”

“Present.” I say in my usual monotonous voice. I stare at my reflection in the pristine, clean, tile floors. I look similar to all the other young women with an army green blazer, cream skirt, and hair pulled back into a neat bun. The only difference in the men's uniforms are instead of skirts, they have slacks. I jolt out of my thoughts when his name gets called. 

“Thirty.”

“Here.” My best friend says in his signature cocky voice. Only Thirty would be as daring and stupid enough to answer our instructor that way. I glance at him, his blue eyes, his shaggy black hair and make a comical wincing gesture.

“Thirty.” She says again, and I maybe find a hint of annoyance in her voice.

“Yes, Instructor would you like something?” Thirty states again.

The room fills with hushed whispers. I shake my head, they act as if they hadn’t heard anything unruly from him before. Thirty is known for his antics, I’m personally surprised they haven’t put him in the warning room by now.

“Thirty. You are to say “Present.” Under no circumstances are you supposed to say “Here.”

The instructor gestures to the spacious, dull gray classroom with its stainless steel tables and everything in the correct order.

“Does this look like an environment where we can openly express our opinions and share our thoughts without being asked or told?” She asks menacingly.

Deciding to drop it, most likely to avoid further trouble, Thirty replies.

 “No ma’am.”

“We, as human beings are the foundations of humanity and life as we know it. We answer the same for a reason. Everybody is, and will act the same.”

I mentally roll my eyes. The instructor goes on her long speech of how we’re supposed to do things around here. She starts by telling us that the reason we all have no parents are because we are not supposed to have emotional bonds, because we’re here to learn. The instructor tells us that if our class of forty-five has any variation among us, we will not be prepared for the outside world.

I myself think this is completely stupid, the whole system is stupid. We were born and raised in this compound. None of us up until the age of twenty have ever seen the outside world aside from our limited resources of books. The government paints us as a picture perfect world. We, at the moment of birth are placed in this facility. We are raised with no communication to the outside world. Our names are numbers, and we all wear the same clothing, have the same beds, the same dorms. At twenty years of age we leave the compound after a series of tests, starting at sixteen, that determine the main jobs we will be chosen for.

I have never met my parents and only have one artifact from my mother. She left behind a locket with a note. I found it digging under the floorboards one day a few years ago while in my dorm. All the note says is that the locket is important and never to lose it, because I’ll need it someday.

At the rate this is going though, I’m probably just going to get stuck with a boring government job. I want to see the world, to travel in the places that only I have seen from books, and take Thirty along as my companion. I sometimes wish there was a way to escape this all.

I tune again when I hear the last of the names being called.